The Philippines has long been the world’s largest supplier of seafarers, serving up no shortage of talent to the pool of over 1.6 million sailors that make up the backbone of global logistics. At KCC, our fleet is largely made up of its own share of dedicated Filipinos, Romanians, a minority share of other Europeans, and now, thanks to the vision of VP Maritime Personnel Torbjørn Eide, a 5% (and growing) share of South Africans.

The South African project has primarily been pioneered by Eide for the past decade, who has previously commented, “complementing the nationalities aboard our vessels is an important and valuable experience for our sailors, and we see South Africa as a well of untapped potential from a skills and people development perspective.”

With KCC’s specialist combination carriers requiring specific competence, Liv Dyrnes quizzes Edie on how he and his team have spent the past 10 years developing South Africa’s Ugu District as our new ‘center of gravity’ for recruiting the skilled seafarers now serving as Ratings and Cadets in the fleet.

Discussion points include:

• An introduction to KSM’s ‘Manpower Development Program’ and its legacy of enhancing social welfare in less fortunate regions

• Why our seafarers need a particular level of competence for serving the combination carriers

• The history of our pool of seafarers and how the project in South Africa was triggered

• Overcoming unexpected obstacles and hurdles along the way

• How the pool of seafarers has since developed and looking ahead